Index

Gelid Solutions’s GX-7 weighs in at 720 grams with the fan, and you can see that the heatsink is not very large. This means that the GX-7 will not fight other high-end CPU coolers with mass, but rather clever design and optimization. You’ll soon see that the new design is quite successful and that the GX-7 can take on some much bigger CPU coolers.

The heatsink is 159mm tall so you should check whether it will fit in your case. It is 130mm wide (without the fan) and 65mm deep. The design helps the heatpipes in the center of the heatsink cool better.

Gelid Solutions chose not to focus on every inch of free space in order to increase dissipation surface, but rather employed clever design to direct the airflow towards the heatpipes, which in turn transfer and dissipate heat coming from the CPU. Thanks to the design, Gelid Solutions also managed to decrease the GX-7’s weight and save on materials as well, which reflected on pricing.

The GX-7’s base is split in two levels, which helped the company pull off the seven heatpipe trick. If all seven heatpipes were level, their width would exceed the cooler base width, i.e. the width of the cooled CPU. That is why Gelid Solutions moved two heatpipes onto the second level of the cooler base, as you can see from the picture below.

Gelid Solutions left air circulation holes in an attempt to prevent heat from building up in the center of the heatsink.

The fan (Wing 12 PL Blue Fan, PWM, 10 – 26.8 dBA, 0.45A, gewicht 120g) does not come pre-mounted, but it’s not hard to do with the provided brackets. Note that you’ll get four brackets, which means that the GX-7 will take two fans. The Wing 12 PL spins from 600-1800 rpm. It’s clear that the fan is capable of silent operation but maximum rpm will quickly “remedy” that.

Gelid Solutions extended the heatsink edges by about 1mm and effectively made fan holders. This is a great method to prevent the fans from moving and it helped us during mounting as well.

The only thing that seems of lesser quality is the blue sticker on the plastic part of the heatsink, which started peeling off.